Recruiting a cherub
by RANDOM DUDE NO.1
Summary: Joe's is depressed his mum is dead and his dad scrapes a living working for a drug dealer. But when his dad is killed and he is recruited by cherub, he sees that there is hope in his life. But can he survive his first mission. Which turns out to be one of the most dangerous a cherub has ever faced?
1. Chapter 1

Joe Wilkinson's life was hard. He had just turned 12 and life wasn't getting easier. His dad worked for a drug dealer and his mum committed suicide when Joe was 2. Because of what he did, Joe's dad spent most of the time in a pub down the road where he did business or buying drugs somewhere 50 miles away. He often left Joe in their cramped house in a dodgy part of London. He attended a rough school a few miles down the road where the older kids regularly beat up the younger ones if you did anything they didn't like.

"Come here" said mark, a massive 16 year old.

"what" replied Joe warily. He was big for his age and pretty strong but could do nothing against the gang of 15 and 16 year olds standing in front of him.

"You got money?"asked John, the leader of the little gang

"I've got a couple quid in my pocket but thats it"

"Search his bag"

"I swear, I haven't got anything else"

"Nice" Mark smiled happily as he pulled out some knew nike trainers from Joe's P.E. bag."They must be worth a bit."

"Now get out my face" said John as he threw the bag at Joe.

As Joe scrambled away, he thought of excuses to tell his dad about why he'd lost his new trainers.

When Joe got home he saw that his dad wasn't at home again so he pulled up the mat beside the door and found the spare key. After a few failed efforts he managed to open the door and he stepped was feeling miserable as usual and walked through to the small lounge to watch the tiny TV in the corner. Joe's dad only just about scraped a living with his drug dealing and their house was small and bare. As he flicked on the TV, Joe started to realise that he hated his life.


	2. Chapter 2

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Joe sat in front of the TV for hours but his dad stilled hadn't come back. He started getting worried when it got to 10 o'clock and his dad still hadn't returned. He started to fall asleep when the doorbell rang. Dad has a key, So why would he ring the doorbell? Thought Joe. He was surprised to see a policeman standing outside the door. This can't be good, he thought. As soon as he opened the door he could tell something was wrong. The mans body language and expression were all wrong and he had the looked of someone who had something to say but didn't know how how to say it. Joe knew what the man was going to say before he said it.

"I'm very sorry, but your dad is dead."

"H-h-how did it h-happen"Joe wobbled as he was shaking.

"Your dad delivered drugs, yes?"

Joe nodded.

"He had an argument with a customer because the man hadn't paid him enough. The man then stabbed him with a knife and he died before the ambulance arrived."

Joe didn't know what to feel. He just felt empty. His dad hardly saw him and Joe hated him sometimes but he was still Joe's dad and the only family Joe had after his mum what would happen to him now? He had no relatives. He would probably have to go to a children's home where he didn't know anyone. But would it be a fresh start? Somewhere where he was finally happy? Joe didn't know. But all he could do right now was crumple to the ground and cry for his mum and dad. Right then he fell into a deep depression and it felt like he'd never get out. .This was too much for him take in and he feinted.


	3. Chapter 3

Joe was sent to Nebraska house childrens home on the edge of London. When he got there everyone was at school. So the only thing he could do was unpack which Joe thought was about as boring as staring at wall. when everybody else finally got back from school he met his knew roommate. He was a short boy with dark hair.

"I'm Tom" he said, holding out his hand.

"Joe"

"how long you been here for then?" Tom asked

"couple hours, you?"

"5 days. Boring as hell here. So how did you end up here?"

"My dad was stabbed 2 days ago"

"I'm sorry"

"Don't be. My dad hardly saw me and he didn't care much about me, so why should I care about him?" Joe said coldly

"Anyway I usually go for a run after school. You wanna come?"

"Doesn't look like there's much else to do around here."

40 minutes later Joe slumped onto his bed, completely knackered by the run. He was suprised by how easy it had been for Tom who wasn't even out of breath.

"How do you manage to do that man?" Joe managed to say between breaths.

"Do what?"

"Look at you, you're absolutely fine."

Tom shrugged "I go for runs quite often. When are you starting school?"

" They said they'd find me a place but it could take a couple of days."

"Lucky bugger."

"Dinners ready" shouted one of the adults down stairs and the 2 boys left the room.

Dinner was a soggy macaroni cheese that made Joe want to puke. He ate it quickly and returned to his room. Joe looked around his room and thought about that he would probably live in this cramped room with a bunk bed squeezed into the corner for the rest of his childhood. His room at his home had been small but this was almost half the size. He lay on his bed thinking about the events of the day. He was pleased that his roomate was nice and everyone else seemed ok but he still missed his own home. He dreaded starting a new school and being the new kid in the year but hopefully it would be ok.


	4. Chapter 4

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The next few days went by quickly. They had involved getting up late and not really doing much until everyone else got home. He would then go for a run with Tom. Come back and gulp the food down, then talk to Tom until he went to bed. And before he new it, it was time for his first day of school. He was going to be going to Carring park secondary school which had one of the lowest exam results in the country. At least the uniform wasn't to bad: a blue polo shirt and black trousers. Tom had started just over a week ago and didn't really have any friends so the 2 of them walked to school together. Luckily, they were in the same tutor and had the same lessons. The teachers hadn't quite mastered class control and the boys at the back of the class were constantly chucking things at each other and talking about the big fight that had happened before school. Joe was pretty clever so he had no problem keeping up with the classwork but couldn't be bothered to do a lot of it and spent most of the day talking to Tom while the teachers were slowly going mad as nobody was paying much attention to them.

At the end of the day, 2 boys who were big and angry looking came over to them.

"New kid." one of them said

"money, now" snarled the other one

" Why don't you piss off"replied Tom

All 3 of the other boys were startled, the 2 boys towered over Tom and were big, whereas Tom was pretty skinny.

"Its not worth it"warned Joe as he wondered how Tom had the balls to have said that.

"Come on then!" shouted Tom

One of the boys lunged at Tom. He easily dodged and punched him in the side of the head, Making the boy crumple. The other boy stepped forward, thinking that Tom had just got amazingly lucky. Tom need him in the guts then swept his feet away.

"You wanna try that again" shouted Tom, as he looked at the 2 dazed bodies lying on the floor groaning in pain.

"We need to get out of here." said Joe urgently

They quickly walked off and once they were a few minutes away Joe broke into a massive grin.

"You destroyed those dudes. How did you learn to fight like that?"

"My dad was a karate instructor" Tom explained

"So a you a black belt"

Tom nodded

"Awesome"Joe grinned

Somebody then came up behind them and Joe briefly felt a needle going into his arm before blacking out.


	5. Chapter 5

Joe woke up lying in a double bed in a spacious room. There was a big TV at one end and a sofa at the other. He got out of bed and was suprised to see that he was completely naked. He didn't know what to do until he saw a orange t-shirt, combat trousers and some boots. The shirt had the word CHERUB written on the front. He looked out the window and saw some kids in red shirts playing football while another group of people in grey and navy shirts were on a firing range while a man was telling them what to do. So this was some kind of boarding school Joe thought. But why had they drugged him and what was he doing there?

He stepped out of the room into a corridor. He saw a girl that looked about 15 and was carrying some books.

"excuse me-"

"Can't talk to orange" The girl said

Joe saw a boy walking along the corridor

"I-"

"Can't talk to orange"but the boy did point to the lift and pointed downwards.

Joe pressed the button for the ground floor and when he got there a women was standing infront of him.

"You must be Joe"

Joe nodded"Where am I"

"I'll explain everything as I take you on a tour of the campus"

She took him outside and climbed into a golf cart.

"My name is Zara and I'm the head of cherub. CHERUB is basically a boarding school but with a slight twist."

"Whats that?" Joe asked

"Well I know this is hard to believe but cherub is a branch of the Intelligence Service"

"What, like child spies?"

Zara nodded

"But why use kids"

"You'd be surprised how effective CHERUB's are. I'll use the example are old head mac used to use. If a man knocks on the door of an old ladys house the women wouldn't let him in. If he said he was sick she might call an ambulance but she wouldn't let him. Now if a child came running up to the door crying, the old lady would let him in. A man could then jump out of hiding, hit the lady on the head and rob the place. Criminals have been using this tactic for years but we have also been using it."

"But couldn't I go back to where I was before and tell all the newspapers about this."

"Do you have any idea where we are?"

"No"

"Do you have any evidence at all?"

"No"

"Is anybody going to believe you?"

"I guess not."

"Now before we begin the tests I want to let you know that you can walk away at any time if you don't want to be at Cherub"

"Tests?"

"Before you can join Cherub you have to go through a series of tests that test your stamina, strength, fighting ability and intelligence. So do you want to do them?"

"Yes, I'm in"


	6. Chapter 6

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Zara led Joe into a large room that had a massive amount of equipment along the in the middle was a serious looking man in a white coat.

"This is Doctor Kessler, he will be measuring your fitness , bone structure and any issues your body may have." Zara explained.

After Dr kessler had wired Joe up to a machine that measured his heart rate, he was told to run for 30 minutes on a treadmill. When he was finished, he collapsed into a chair. He was kept wired up to see his recovery time. After a some more similar tests, Dr Kessler took a tiny sample of his muscle in his thigh to look at. The cut was painful for Joe and he had to stop himself scratching it as it only made it bleed more.

When he was finished, Zara led him to an expensive looking traditional Japanese dojo.

"The Japanese government built this for us as a gift after a Cherub saved them from losing millions of pounds from a Russian mafia." Zara said.

They took of there shoes and socks and walked into the building. It looked very modern and had a blue mat across the whole floor. A small boy that looked about Joe's age was standing in front of them.

"This is Max and he will be your opponent. The rules are simple, get the other player to submit 3 times to win. You can do anything except kicking the groin, biting or eye gouging. Touch fists and then fight."

The other boy didn't look much and Joe reckoned he could easily beat him. After they'd touched fists Joe threw a clumsy punch. Max easily dodged it and before Joe knew it, he was pinned to the ground with a knee crushing his throat.

"I submit." Joe said and the knee was lifted away. Joe got back up slowly and realised he had completely underestimated Max and he moved impossibly quickly. He got up and as soon as Zara said go Joe lunged forward. Max grabbed him and twisted his finger round into it clicked. He then swept Joe's feet away and Joe fell to the ground.

"I submit" Joe croaked, his thumb stinging. Joe got up again and moved slowly forward, before trying to kick max's legs. Max grabbed Joe's leg.

"Submit or i'll break your leg."

"I submit" Joe said, angry that he'd done so badly.

"Ok, thank you Max. Joe I think we'll have time to squeeze in 1 more test before lunch." Zara said.

Joe hobbled out of the dojo, wondering how he could of been beaten so easily.


End file.
